David Stevens, who early this month left his job as El Paso Electric's chief executive officer to take what company officials said was another job with an undisclosed company, apparently has no other job.

Stevens, in an email he sent this week to various people and which was obtained by the El Paso Times, said he's job hunting.

Also, days after he left the company on March 2, he sold almost all his shares in El Paso Electric for $2.7 million, federal filings show.

"I am now back to searching for my next opportunity to run another company or join a board of directors," Stevens, 52, wrote in the five-sentence email. "While I had been very successful in my 3+ years at EE, it was time to move on."

Stevens said nothing in the email about having a job lined up when he resigned from El Paso Electric.

Stevens did not respond Thursday to El Paso Times messages left on his cellphone and sent to his email address.

He lists his home address in Bellevue, Wash., a Seattle suburb.

Stevens was president and CEO of Cascade Natural Gas Corp., in Seattle, for about two years before he became El Paso Electric's CEO. However, he lived in Austin for years and was operating an energy consulting firm immediately before taking his El Paso job.

El Paso city Rep. Cortney Niland, a critic of El Paso Electric and Stevens, said she's not surprised that Stevens doesn't have a job.

"I found (El Paso Electric) comments around his resignation (announcement in late January) very suspicious.

Advertisement

If they couldn't tell us where he was going, I found that strange," Niland said. "He resigned a few days before the company filed a (new) rate case. I found it suspicious."

The fact he is job hunting leads Niland to believe the company was not being honest with El Pasoans and the City Council, she said.

"It further casts doubt in my mind if we can trust them" as the two sides battle over a proposed rate increase, Niland said. She was a force behind the rate case because she believes El Paso Electric's rates are unjustifiably high.

El Paso Electric released a statement Thursday saying:

"When David Stevens resigned, he indicated he had another unnamed opportunity. We have recently learned he has elected not to pursue it."

Interim CEO Thomas Shockley and Richard Fleager, senior vice president of customer care, told the El Paso Times last month that Stevens was working out details for his new job. They also said they didn't know what job he was taking. That was to be announced after the details were completed, Fleager said.

Shockley said El Paso Electric's board of directors was happy with Stevens' performance and didn't want him to leave.

He said Stevens' resignation was not tied to the company's rate case filing.

Stevens' relationship with the City Council soured last year when the two began battling over the company's rates.

Niland said the fact Stevens sold most of his company stock also shows "all he cared about was money, and not this community."

The company's stock performance was his priority, she said.

Stevens from March 5 through March 9 sold 83,563 shares of his El Paso Electric stock for $2.7 million, according to filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

He had only 1,090 shares after his last stock sale on March 9.

Stevens in January had rights to 164,142 shares of stock. But he lost rights to almost half those shares because he left the company, reported Teresa Souza, an El Paso Electric spokeswoman.

Early this year, Stevens received $2.2 million worth of company stock, after taxes, tied to the company's stellar stock performance during his three-year tenure as CEO. Stock awards tied to the company's stock performance were part of his compensation package, which also included a base annual salary of $600,000.

Gary Hedrick, a former El Paso Electric CEO who now teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso, said it's not unusual for executives to sell much of their company stock when leaving a company.

"I find it normal for a high-ranking corporate officer to reallocate their portfolio" after leaving a company. CEOs can have much of their net worth in one company, and so they sell their stock and invest in something else, Hedrick said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.More information: epelectric.com

ODESSA, Texas (AP) — A West Texas man has been charged with impersonating an officer by using sirens and flashing lights to skip to the head of the drive-thru line at a fast-food restaurant. Full Story